In a new effort to tighten the commercial, economic and financial blockade, on September 6, the U.S. Treasury Department modified Assets Control Regulations regarding Cuba, to impose new sanctions on our country.
“Through these regulatory amendments, Treasury is denying Cuba access to hard currency, and we are curbing the Cuban government’s bad behavior while continuing to support the long-suffering people of Cuba,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cynically stated.
The new sanctions basically involved further restricting remissions and bank transactions.
The U.S. government will impose a limit of 1,000 USD per quarter on family remittances. The sending of remittances to close relatives of Cuban government officials and members of the Communist Party of Cuba are also prohibited.In its 60-year effort to asphyxiate the Cuban people, Washington has eliminated the authorization of donations, while adding a clause allowing such remittances if they involve supporting the growth of the private sector in Cuba, independent of government control.
The Treasury Department is removing the authorization for banking institutions subject to U.S. jurisdiction to process certain funds transfers originating and terminating outside the United States, commonly known as “U-turn” transactions. With this new rule, the government puts an end to previous authorization of such transactions, which now must be rejected by U.S. banks.
In recent months, U.S. sanctions on Cuba have been expanded, while pressure on Venezuela intensifies. In early June, the Trump administration approved new bans to prohibit educational group trips and canceling authorizations for pleasure and passenger boats, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private planes.
On May 2 this year, Trump activated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, and, in accordance with its stipulations, authorized the filing of lawsuits in U.S. courts against Cuban companies included in the list of Restricted Cuban Entities, created in November 2017 and updated a year later.
This arbitrary and illegitimate listing, aimed at intensifying the blockade and extending its extraterritorial effects, prohibits U.S. citizens from conducting direct financial transactions with the entities included.Given their illegitimate claims and violation of international law, the Helms-Burton Act and the blockade have aroused universal rejection, repeated for almost three decades by the most important regional and international organizations.
The most recent decision by the Treasury Department reinforces obstacles Cuba must face, but the United States will continue to fail in its central objective of denying the sovereign will of the Cuban people and our firm, unwavering solidarity with Venezuela’s constitutional President, Nicolás Maduro Moros, the Bolivarian Chavista Revolution, and the civic-military union of its people.
